Law & Lawyers

Wisconsin Gas Co. has asked the Wisconsin Public Service Commission to approve "GasAdvantage," a pilot that would allow competitors to supply natural gas to 1,000 residential and 1,200 commercial customers starting November 1. Participating customers would have from August 1 to October 15 to choose a specific marketer to serve them for a one-year period. Wisconsin Gas will continue to transport the gas, but customers will be billed by the marketer. Wisconsin Gas proposes to develop standards of business conduct to screen potential marketers.

The Nuclear Energy Institute reports that nuclear power plants are exceeding performance goals for safety and reliability. In 1995, the U.S. nuclear industry:

s Achieved the highest capability factor ever: a median value of 82.6 percent. (Unit capability is a percentage of the most electricity a plant can produce, limited by plant management.)

s Reduced unplanned automatic shutdowns or scrams by almost 90 percent since 1980.

s Met safety performance in 94 percent of the systems.

Deregulation, competition, and marketplace practices have been spreading slowly across the communications business for decades. In their wake, they have left lower prices, faster innovation, and more services, jobs, profits, and productivity.

Among the proposals for still further change, one of the most shocking is the idea that radio rights should be bought and sold on the open market, just like land or any other commodity.

First came the Pool, with its faults and virtues.

Now comes a wave of troubling takeovers.

What happens when retail supply opens up?

Much of the pressure to reform the electricity supply industry in the United States assumes that the United Kingdom's electricity experiment offers a proven model.